Crow’s Nest: Creek Trail improvements

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

The seasonally-muddy Creek Trail has gotten a lot easier to hike. Yes, this weekend parts are under water as French Creek floods, but nearly all of the trail has a new layer of clean crushed gravel to get you out of the mud. Many thanks to the staff and volunteers who spread this gravel by bucket and wheelbarrow—the only way to get it all the way in there. Even if there is water on the trail the gravel provides a surface that is not slippery and slightly elevated.

Also, a major improvement has been made in the form of Austin Chambers’ Eagle Scout Project—a footbridge to replace the sketchy temporary plank that we’ve had down there for the last few years. (If you’ve hiked the trail you know exactly where I mean.) This bridge spans a swale where water flows when the creek floods and is both steep and muddy. This is the second Eagle Scout project we’ve benefitted from on the Creek Trail, following a similar footbridge project further south on the trail by Dalton Meadows a couple years ago. We hope you enjoy the improvements!